While the collaboration of Ernest Gann who wrote the novel (1953) and
screenplay that inspired The High and Mighty movie (1954) along with
its director William Wellman, some might argue that this movie was more
of a spin off of their earlier collaboration a year earlier of their
first air disaster genre movie, Island in The Sky (1953). While these
films are considered ground-breaking and setting the bar for future air
disaster movies such as Airport (1970) the purportedly mainstream
blockbuster of the 70s, a few airplane movies have moved on since in
their cinematography and substantive character/relational presentation.

While The High and Mighty has become dated, unlike say 2001: A Space
Odyssey (1968), there a moments, particularly the human elements that
remain special even through to this day by their emotional impact and
their amazing brevity that still somehow captured mini-stories of
importance, perhaps due to the talent of both Gann and Wellman.
Overall, the movie feels more like a transitional movie from the
theatrical stage to the big screen, where obvious artificial set
designs are periodically used and the acting at times seems to be
slighted artificially forced, but in instance, much more muted and
refined than the overly dramatized standard of the era.

Perhaps a more gripping and thrilling recreation of an air disaster of
the same era comes in the form of a story inspired by Ernest Gann from
a 1961 memoir he wrote but eventually distanced himself the movie
script that was the basis of Glenn Ford's air disaster movie Fate Is
The Hunter (1964), or Sidney Lumet's nuclear cold war movie Fail Save
(1964). Or extending the genre into more contemporary
transportation/space disaster genre, one might even consider Gravity
(2013) to be the ultimate in disaster movies. Or extending the air
disaster genre in the psychological thriller subgenre, one might
consider the eerie performance of Ann Hathaway in Passengers (2008).
Yet the most closely related, quality movies that might be considered
true successors to The High and Mighty would be the remarkable
docudrama of Air Disasters (2011) or United 93 (2006).

I'm reminded of Sarah Michelle Gellar in "Simply Irresistible" (1999).
The experience of love seems magical, ever since the classic romantic
movie Three Coins in the Fountain (1954) which was nominated for Best
Oscar. As impractical as it seems, love seems to defy reason and
mathematical precision and probability, from Practical Magic (1998) and
witchcraft to love as impractical and worldly crazy as Sandra Bullock
in All About Steve (2009).

This movie is enchanting, entertaining, and perhaps ridiculous, but it
is fun, and a feel-good date movie that is mysteriously predictable,
but mostly stress-free, get one's mind off of everyday "crap." A get
away fantasy movie. A good time with Kristen Bell of Frozen (2013)
fame.

Michael Caine headlines this light crime thriller with its underplayed
comedy. The movie contains one of the most extended chase scenes with a
variety of action stunts as part of a rather convoluted crime caper.
While the main story backbone remains intact, a number of the subplots
seem to get short shrift and underdeveloped: the involvement of the
Mafia, Caine's relational encounters, and the ended seems intriguing,
but unsatisfying.

The car chase was amazing and yet distracting as the persistent Italian
police seem to some how pop up in an unbelievable way that only
highlighted how manipulative without thought this sequence was. The
movie has a Blue Brothers (1980) feel to it while it doesn't quite have
the amazing lighter of say It's Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
slapstick fun factor nor the nicely concluded The Great Escape ending
(1963).

Overall, the original Italian Job was interesting, appealing, but
nevertheless, less than stellar.

5 out of 34 people found the following review useful:An Uneven But Lavish Spectacular Fiary Tale, 17 March 2015

Oddly enough, this visually epic, lusciously presented live action
version of Cinderella has its amazing moments but at the same time
inconsistent tonal qualities. Without the traditional musical
accompaniments, this famous fairy tale of the movie must depend on a
superb script and directorial expertise to maintain a grand fairy tale
extravaganza quality. Yet at the beginning of the movie there is more
is presented more as a period piece than a fairy tale and the tempo
slows way down with lumbering exposition and dramatic license that
takes some of the magic away from the movie. The fusion of both
substantive live action drama along with the lighter fantasy elements
are uneasily blended together.

It is the amazing magical moments between the lead characters,
Cinderella and the Prince that the true inspirational fireworks explode
into a compelling experience. The opportunity to flesh out the evil
stepmother and stepsisters is sidestepped which would have been more
consistent with a more dramatic and fully developed fairy tale. Johnny
Depp in Finding Neverland (2004) offers up the nicely balanced serious
but lighter tones that would have provided the solid foundation on
which to present this more lively version of Cinderella or to have gone
with a musical live version that would have allowed the music to
enhance the fairy tale experience like Craig Ferguson's created in his
written, directed, and starred in "I'll Be There" family drama that
included both fine humor and music.

In some ways the magic of the fairy tale nature wasn't there as the
live action family drama at times became more pervasive even as the
overly heavy use of the narrator attempted to keep that storyteller
flavor intact. The movie might have also been better if it had been
structured more like dramatic and seemingly magical ambiance of The
Secret Garden (1993) a period movie about a young British girl who is
forced to live his uncle or Hugo (2011) rich visually period piece of
historical fiction about a boy who lives in a railway station. Of
course a live action version of Frozen (2013) about two princesses one
who has apparently magical powers approach would have been intriguing
to attempt. Personally Drew Barrymore's Ever After (1998) retains the
strongest presentation of the live action fairy tale.

It's really hard to distinguish Robin William's character from is own
real life persona in this movie. It will be interesting to see how this
movie is experienced in the future when the immediacy of William's own
real suicide has faded in memory for audience members. One fascinating
question will be how Peter Dinklage's character as a "small person" is
experienced. Was it William's suicide that distracted focus on
Dinklage's "small person" presence in the movie that allow this "small
person" to be cast and scripted and acted without any "smallness"
attributed to him? His character and how others behaved around him,
presented one of the few, if only, movie where size was absolutely not
even noticed.

Robin William's character was edgy and raw, Robins wasn't a singularly
bad or nice character, yet his personal legacy of the end of his life
and his redemptive spirit seem to echo throughout the movie. The movie
is necessarily a drama with humor incorporated into it and William's
humor as a person continues to color it. This is a message movie, a
morality tale, an emotional thriller running against time. Unlike
Michael Douglas's character who beings to fall apart in Falling Down
(1993) or Christian Slater's pent up psychotic experience in He Was a
Quiet Man (2007), Robin portrays an angry man with a terminal illness
who will die in a short time. As such, such life transforming
experiences vary, but in this movie, there is a lasting tribute and
morality tone that is apt for being one of Robin's last movies.

1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:Real Mystery Thriller Better Than Fiction, 16 March 2015

With so many mystery thrillers out there along with reality television,
it becomes pretty crowded and nauseating to watch it all. But here
comes a docudrama that is firmly rooted in re-creations based on
authentic presentation and in doing so, makes this television series
among the most engaging and thrilling that the medium of film can offer
out there. Each episodes contains documentary like precision with the
reenactments carefully following dialogue that captures the reality of
the moment making each episode vicariously compelling. The storyline is
well explained and executed, the human element well presented along
with an emotional connection, and the scientific road to discovery all
make this CSI-like experience all the more intriguingly better than
fiction. Highly rated for its appealing performances and substantive
content that pulls the audience directly into the storm.

With all the characters, the emotive comedic and dramatic plots, and
multi-generational time periods to be captured on film, this movie is a
result of a remarkable editing and directorial job to make it
enjoyable, balanced, and appealing watchable. The interweaving comedy
offered up by the characters along with some fairly emotionally violent
scenes is made possible by well executed editing and timing. This movie
looks at the connections of family dynamics through time, the
dysfunctional impact of differences is memory perception and recall,
the horrors substance abuse, family violence, and neglect. This movie
is about facing the past, talking, and resolving family problems
instead of allowing them to fester and tear a family and current
relationships apart. It is facing up to problems through openness even
though it hurts.

Other powerful familial stories are presenting in the more youthful and
serious focus in Where the Lilies Bloom (1974), the family serio-comedy
Uptown Girls (2003), the family drama with ethnic humor Lost in Yonkers
(1993). Ya Ya Sisterhood is less consistently dramatically intense than
say the dysfunctional mental family issues of Proof (2005) but much
less silly and delightfully ridiculous than the insightful family
comedy of Paddington (2015). This movie is more in the vein of the
generational depiction found in Drew Barrymore's experience in Riding
In Cars with Boys (2001) or less raw seriousness of Nicole Kidman's
experience in Margot at the Wedding (2007) or similar to the depiction
of the consequences of abuse and neglect in The Human Stain (2003).
Perhaps, Ya, Ya Sisterhood might be closely compared to the
multi-generational performances found in Georgia Rule (2007) and even
more entertaining than the classic depiction of American dysfunction
found in American Beauty (2000) or less epic and substantively dense
than the gorgeously depicted ethnic generational piece of The Joy Luck
Club (1993).

In short this entertaining movie has something valuable to say about
family and secrets.

2 out of 6 people found the following review useful:A Truly Strange Black Comedy Action Movie?, 21 February 2015

It's uncertain whether or not Kingsman reflects the best of the
evolving black comedy trend in movies or not and whether such a trend
is a passing or permanent element of a classic movie. Whichever it is,
Kingsman currently is a superior film with its finely honed balance of
black, dark murderous content being portrayed alongside British,
gentlemanly wit. This film is a Colin Firth's best actor Oscar high
English version of the The King's Speech (2010) meets the comedic spy
romp of James Coburn's Our Man Flint (1966) meets the hard edged, raw
espionage of the refurbished, rebranded James Bond in the form of
Daniel Craig in Casino Royale (2006). Dark comedy in the spy genre has
been gaining more prominent film focus as they have evolved from the
more entertaining comedy action motif of the popular and zany Wild,
Wild West (1999) or the romantic interplay of Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)
taking on the more darker and serious ambiance of the action crime
thriller, The Dark Knight (2008) as Sam Rockwell in Confessions of a
Dangerous Mind (2002) and Pierce Brosnan in The Matador (2005) seemed
to make be some of the first forays into this gumbo of movie genres
that began with the classic Pulp Fiction (1994), Kingsman appears to
take its basic thematic tone from the blackest of action comedy of Uma
Thurman's Kill Bill 1 & 2 (2003, 2004) and incorporating a culturally
off-balance brush stroke of the military black comedy war movie Tropic
Thunder (2008). Recently a number of movies have taken murderous death
and blended these atrocious acts with a finely balanced hue of comedic
overtones such as Bill Nighy's Wild Target (2009), Violet & Daisy
(2011), Brad Pitt in Killing Them Softly (2012), Kevin Costner in 3
Days to Kill (2014) and Katie Holme's very proper but fatalistic Miss
Meadows (2014). Kingsman includes the added bonus of a strong
performance as a villain in the form of a fascinatingly speech impeded
Samuel L. Jackson. This dark comedic action thriller comes across as
something, fresh, new, and bold while sustaining an especially
emotional intensity throughout and grabbing the audience refusing to
let them go until the end. Whether or not this whole creatively new
comedic frenzied experience is a passing endorphin high or some
established benchmark of greatest remains to be seen.

0 out of 1 people found the following review useful:A Pretty Good Action Thriller That Misses, 12 February 2015

With a new and brilliant overall directorial and script approach, The
Prince almost avoids the typical, traditional action thriller motif.
Unfortunately along the way, it misses a few key elements, as this
movie stumbles a bit from being perhaps the first action thriller
classic since The Bourne Identity (2002). There is a special charm and
distinctive plot flavor that permeates this movie. It is rich with
humaneness and there is a pungent odor of unwritten honor in the
script's characters. Even the "pick something up" from a pawnshop scene
is radically different from traditional shoot'm up, bang, bang
scenario. Like Bourne Identity, The Prince doesn't become a lurid
sexual exploitation film and the role of the girlfriend is fascinating
in its depiction in the movie. While John Cusack's secondary role might
be considered underdeveloped and underused, his role as a supporting
character might actually add to the integrity of this more divergent
version of an action movie.

An energized, pounding rhythmic musical beat paces along with the
movie. The movie moves slowly at first, but continually building at its
own speed. There is a later shoot out, and it's a puzzling question of
believability and yet there is also something about the rapid pacing
and quick action of the scene that makes it more effective in its way,
instead of the traditional drawn out, over-stylized special effects
action scene.

The two major problems with this movie is its less than convincing
protagonist. His intellectual and fighting skills aren't really
displayed with much more than a Terminator-like ferocity. About a
little more than a third of the way into the movie there is a chase,
one that offers a stark difference with Jason Bourne's film, Bourne
Identity. Instead of some almost supernatural telegraphed ability In
the to evade and elude and instead a dependence on what up until now
was a much more performance-based, rough but authentic build up to a
very classy espionage, taking movie. The climatic ending also doesn't
end at the level of satisfaction or completeness that the movie has
been building up to. The director had a choice between a startling more
surprising ending that might include a more human element or the full
display of the protagonist's abilities and talents which were missing.

0 out of 3 people found the following review useful:Solid, 9 February 2015

Fury has nice pacing, engaging, and a balanced action drama of the tank
warfare of World War II. This movie excels in its presentation of war
that is both shocking as it is penetrating in its intensity and
different perspective of military shells. There is a surprising, almost
a futuristic laser blasters visual in the action scenes.

This what is an essentially coming of age movie for one young new
recruit at the end of the war exposing him to the horrors and delicate
negotiation between war's insanity and human propriety. Fury, though
doesn't quite have the intricate touch of comedic subtlety and cultural
imbalance of Tropic Thunder (2008), nor the epic presentation of Saving
Private Ryan (1998), the intimacy and continuous singular battle event
focus and intensity of Black Hawk Down (2001) or We Were Soldiers
(2002), the comprehensive nature of a predominate war struggle of
survival of The Great Escape (1963), the darkness and totality insanity
of Apocalypse Now (1979), or the raw, authenticity of Jarhead (2005).